Britain is no longer a Christian nation. Indeed more than half of the UK population has no religion.
According to the latest survey of religious belief among the British population conducted by British Social Attitudes, 53% of adults describe themselves as having no religion. In 1983, the figure was only 31% and the increase in the percentage is clear and consistent.
The percentage is closely correlated with age. Currently, among 18-24 years old, 71% have no religion. For those over 75, the figure is 27%.
Among those in Britain with a faith, Christianity is the main religion: 15% Anglican, 9% Catholic, and 17% other Christian – a total of 41%. So we cannot really say now that Britain is a Christian country.
You can find more information on this survey here and the full data sets here.
The data was published a few weeks ago, but I’m blogging about it now because today I was interviewed about the survey for a short piece for Czech radio. I welcomed the trends.
November 12th, 2017 at 3:20 pm
A small pedantic point, Roger – the British Social Attitudes Survey is conducted by NatCen Social Research (http://natcen.ac.uk/).
November 12th, 2017 at 5:52 pm
Quite right, Mairi. Thanks for the clarification.